Rangers in crisis: Charles Green agrees deal to take over struggling Ibrox club

The former Sheffield United chief executive put pen to paper on the buyout this morning and a press conference has been called at Murray Park for 10am where he will officially be named as the preferred bidder.

The former Sheffield United chief executive put pen to paper on the buyout this morning and a press conference has been called at Murray Park for 10am where he will officially be named as the preferred bidder.

Last night Green promised Rangers fans he wasn’t another Craig Whyte after revealing he has been named the club’s preferred bidder.

And the Englishman stuck the boot into the Blue Knights as he accused Brian Kennedy of being a wannabe film star who was only out for personal glory.

The Ibrox administrators are also far from impressed by Kennedy and yesterday insisted the £11m bid he talked up was actually worth just £2m to creditors.

But Duff and Phelps have greater faith in the £8.5m offer from Green’s consortium and will today announce them as preferred bidders for the troubled club.

There are concerns about Green’s intentions for the Ibrox outfit after his controversial spell as Sheffield United’s chief executive.

And he once had business dealings with a finance firm connected with Whyte.

But while the Yorkshireman admitted he was no saint, he also claimed there was nothing sinister about his bid.

And Green told fans they wouldn’t be taken for another ride.

He said: “I understand the frustration of the fans. They are apprehensive about anybody taking charge of the club after what Craig Whyte did.

“I don’t want anybody to say I am purer than the driven snow because I am not – but I don’t want people to write lies about me.

“I can assure you there is nothing sinister about my motives. The administrators are going to introduce me as the preferred bidder and we’ll do a joint press conference when things will become clearer.”

Green drove to Glasgow yesterday for talks with Gers boss Ally McCoist and mapped out his plan to drag the club from the depths of despair.

Now he can’t wait to get cracking with the salvage operation after winning the race to be named as preferred bidder.

Rival Kennedy had promised fans a dream team of McCoist, Walter Smith and Graeme Souness as part of the Blue Knights takeover.

And he claimed administrators Duff and Phelps would have “blood on their hands” unless they came up with a cunning masterplan to save the club. But Green blasted back last night and insisted Kennedy was all talk and no action.

He said: “For the last three months I have been working on a deal to save this great club. I have seen what has happened and it has been horrendous.

“But unlike everybody else who is doing it for their own personal glorification, like Brian Kennedy, we just want to save the club.

“Kennedy wants to be a movie star and doesn’t want to be a chairman of the club. He thinks he’s Mel Gibson.”

Green’s reign as Sheffield United’s chief executive was stormy and former Rangers star Nigel Spackman resigned as manager in 1998 after becoming fed up with the way he was running the club.

Fans were also furious when Green sold some of their top players but the Englishman insists he’s a man who can be trusted.

And he pointed to his record at Proactive Sports – where he managed to save the agency millions – as proof that he can turn financial matters around at Ibrox.

Green said: “Proactive wanted me back because things were not looking so good.

“They owed people like Wayne Rooney, Rio Ferdinand and Thomas Sorensen something like £40m. They were going to lose the lot but in February I got every penny back for them with interest. I then resigned so you cannot say there is anything untrustworthy about me or they wouldn’t have wanted me back.”

Green now wants to help Gers bounce back from the brink after holding talks with McCoist.

The 59-year-old added: “I met with Ally and we went through the players, the plans and the strategy to take this club on.

“There is a lot of work to do but I am not work-shy or here to take the mickey. I have turned around companies before and I will do it again.

“I spent nearly two hours with Ally and we are here to keep this club afloat.”

McCoist admitted he spoke to former team-mate Spackman after hearing Green was interested in Gers.

But he has an open mind about the man about to call the shots at Ibrox.

The Rangers gaffer said: “I did speak to Nigel but to be fair I spoke to a few people about the potential purchaser.

“It is evident the consortium are well ahead in their planning of the purchase.

“Strange as it may seem, I don’t know if they are going to do due diligence or if they are just going to buy the club.

“We want things to move as quickly as possible because the money is running out.”

However, McCoist admitted Green’s links to shamed owner Whyte were a worry.

He said: “That would obviously be a concern to any supporter but it is not for me to say because I don’t know these guys.

“I can understand that fans might have concerns as they are still really hurting about the way the club has been run, certainly over the last period.

“They just want an outcome as soon as possible – you can feel the tension and patience is wearing thin. All I would ask the fans again is just to try to hang on.”

McCoist also defended Paul Clark and David Whitehouse after the administrators came under fire from Kennedy.

He said: “I speak to both of them and they do keep you up to speed. They are taking a kicking but are only trying to do their job.

“I am not an administrator and know nothing about it other than what I have learned but what I would say is that they have been really fair and transparent with me.”

On Green’s proposed takeover, Whitehouse confirmed: “It’s at a very advanced stage. He’s backed by a venture capital fund. There are some relatively high-profile football people in his bid team. We would not want to breach confidentiality on that.”

Whitehouse also hit back at the Blue Knights and claimed their £11m bid was actually worth just £2m to creditors.

He said: “When we started the bidding process we created a document which was a template to submit bids and we specifically asked them to exclude certain assets.

“The principle thing was the football debtors – monies owed from other clubs to Rangers, predominantly the Nikica Jelavic money from his move to Everton. That was made clear from the start and everybody took it on board except Brian Kennedy.

“The Blue Knights, before Kennedy got involved, were treating the football debtors as excluded assets but that was when their bid was led by Ticketus.

“So the Blue Knights bid is as follows: £5.5m on day one, but they have included the football debtors. They have valued the football debtors at £3.5m – the actual number is £3.8m but let’s go with their £3.5m. So in terms of value to creditors the value of that is £2m.

“In addition to that they are saying they are going to pay Scottish clubs up to £1m but at the end of every season the SPL deduct payments due to other clubs from your prize money. So those clubs will get paid no matter what.

“They are then saying they will pay another £2m in relation to European football.

“It’s made up as follows: £500,000 for each year from 2012-13 and 2013-2014 and the other £1m could come if in one of those years we reach the last eight of the Champions League, which is optimistic.

“So in aggregate they say that gets them to £8.5m. They have also said in a subsequent email that they might consider paying European football creditors, the likes of Rapid Vienna’s £2.7m. So that’s how the Blue Knights get to £11m.

“In our view it’s £2m and might be £2.5m if we get Europe. That’s the value to creditors. The Blue Knights have been told time and time again that the bid is too low.

“They have adopted a strategy to try to bulldoze the process and railroad us through to submission. Even if they were able to railroad us, which they won’t, I don’t believe their offer is one the creditors will accept. And we speak to HMRC on a daily basis.

“HMRC have made it clear they don’t believe in the football creditor rule so it would be contrary to stated policy to accept what the Blue Knights are proposing.

“To come out and say you’ve offered £11m is disingenuous to the fans.”